DVNE : "Voidkind"

 

The Scottish sludgsters are dropping their third album. It is typically rowdy enough, with proggy passages and clean vocals that fly out of the din. Things get much more melodic in the second song. There is certainly a huge Mastodon influence hanging over them. The guitar hypnotically winds around itself. It plays it almost a little too safe, as this sounds like the prog I was listening to 20 years ago. The busy nature of their riffing begins to get a little more tedious with "Reaching for Telos".  Midway into the song they rein it back and ride on the sonic groove, but by that point, I have had to sit through enough riff wankery. 

They continue to rage on with a great deal of bombast. There is just not much at that throbbing speed to hook you in. They are decent songwriters with a clever enough knack for throwing punches in when accents are called for. Perhaps the vocals could do more than howl or just sing in a monotone fashion. The recoil and expand formula that creates an almost Tool like dynamic works well enough, but I feel they are capable of adding more sonic colors.  "Path of Dust" breaks things down to a clean guitar tone, but it's only an interlude however it sets the stage for more intentional melodies to follow it. 

The harsher howled vocals are very Neurosis influenced. The sung vocals are higher with an almost emo vibe to them. This works for me, it helps to set them apart from other bands doing this sort of thing. Some of the melodies that lurk under the explosive outbursts of guitars are the only hints they are from Scottland , if you told me this band was from Savannah GA, it would make an equal amount of sense to me. When they stomp into a heavier more deliberate with the weight of "Abode of the Perfect Soul" it works much better for me even if it's more like every other sludge band. "Pleroma" grooves with more of a Tool-like tension, which I can appreciate over just balls-to-the-wall howling. The last song works off a more melodic pulsation with the drums doubling up to keep things in motion. This album does find it's groove and might be more mathy than what I normally indulge in when it comes to progressive sludge, I will however give it an 8, as they execute what they set out to do well and fans of heavy prog should dig this. It drops on Metal Blade Records.  

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Midas Fall : "The Menagerie Inside "

The dramatic piano intro was unexpected as I assumed this was going to be more of a indie rock thing than some weird progressive goth. I can hear a slight Tori Amos influence , but the vocallly are very over wrought and passionate and not so Kate Bush tinged.No the same time she she is not a goth singer in the vein of Siouxise either, but more along the lines of a less operatic Nightwish or the Gathering. Her influences seem all over the place as their is even a country tinge to her voice on "After Fall". It is draped in majestic elegance. The guitar twinkle around the song rather than going for the typical chug. These guys have assembled pieces of many genres and pasted them together into something that is very much their own. "Circus Performer" allow me to zone out and think it has just kind of fallen out of the previous song. The ballad "Countin Colors" is so delicate not much holds it together. Things get heavier on "Low". It soars off into a more sonic yet tender place in the stratosphere. They remind me a little of the new Marriages album , but with a ore lingering pop hook on " The Morning I Called " It really shimmers brighter than most Post-rock out today. They have a great guitar tone. In some ways "Tramadol Baby" is more rock. The drums play around the riff rather than sticking to your average rock beat until that is called for.This is the first song that I detected Elizabeth Heaton's Scottish. Some of her phrashing is almost poppy, which in this case isn't a bad thing but means some keen attention to detail when it comes to the vocal. "A Song Built From Scraps Of Paper" is aptly titled as it comes across as being fragile even when it builds. It strikes me like Tsylor Swift thrown in the past of sweeping post-rock, though from more of a country side and less of the anthemic sugar pop.There is more urgency to "Holes" that took a second lesson before this song caught, the mix seems weird even when I listened to it through head phones. I'll give this one a 9.5 as it's a real solid listen that grows on me with every spin and will make its way over the the sacred iPod, fans of bands like Marriages ...this is a must.

Ellorsith:"1959"

Caligari Records is releasing a hypnotizing album by a Scottish Band called Ellorsith. A concept album of sorts based upon the Dyatlov Pass Incident, where nine hikers led by Igor Dyatlov mysteriously died in the Ural Mountains of Russia. There death were said to be caused by "a compelling natural force" which  is not only the title of a song on this album,  but could also be an apt description of  Ellorsith's sound. Theories surrounding the incident have ranged from paranormal activity to secret weapons testing. Ellorsith is surrounded by similar mystery as they have very little internet prescene and their album was released on a limited cassette run of only a hundred copies pressed. This ep's lo-fi coldness recreates the atmosphere of the story this band is trying to tell. Mixes black metal with nasty death metal. The vocals are a subterranean gurgle.

"Marasmus" launches off rather abruptly. This is a more straight forward death metal approach, though dark enough until it's hard to tell at times where the death metal begins and the black metal elements end. Most of the time when something is described as blackened, the other elements aside from the black metal are dominate and the black metal is a blast beat here and there some dissonant guitar of vocals that take on a more anguished shriek rather than a guttural bellow.Here they are blended in a more unique and subtle manner. Though upon the first listen to this band it would be hard to think of them capable of subtleties.The mournful guitar melodies that come toward the song's final moments are unexpected.

"Lichrye" the proceedings pick up pace. The vocals take on an almost sung bellow that reminds me of Entombed.The songs winds around into angular chords creating an odd dissonance as the song winds to an end. This dissonance is returned to on the closer"Compelling Natural Force". The bursts of black metal here seem convulsive, as they occur with no warning. The songs slows when not in the blasting seizures. The drumming is more nuance in the cymbal accents. This might be the most well constructed song on the album. At nine minutes it's also the longest, though by black metal standards these days that's just the intro. Ellorsith is not about letting a minute go to waste, if for no other reason than they don't want to give you that much breathing room. Midway into the song when the languishing chords cry out into the night, it is one of the most melodic elements they touch on. Falling in the weird chasm between doom and depressive black metal. Any reluctance felt initially by the first impression of  raw claustrophobic nature of the raw production. If forgotten by the end. Even the rough haunted house theatrics , where it seems they are going with the Yeti theory, doesn't cast too cheesy a shadow on the albums close and is  forgivable after "Compelling Natural Force" was so beautifully constructed.

I'll give these guys at 9.5, The murky production at the onset isn't my thing , but in the end these guys prove that they have more than just sheer rawness to work with. This is going to be one of the best underground metal releases of the year.